Recruiting vs Training Sales Talent

When it comes to handling the demands of a growing business entity, having access to well-trained and quality employees must be a top priority. This is more prevalent than ever in various industries alike where the demands of the workforce are constantly changing and asking for more and more from its employees.

Keeping in mind that it is the employers and leaders in a business or organization that are responsible for developing their workforce, there are a number of factors to consider. So often, businesses both large and small fail their employees by not training them properly or contributing to their development.

There are several methods by which a leader can train their current employees such as negotiation training, onsite training and medical sales training. The other alternative is to gear other resources and efforts to the recruitment of additional staff. There are pros and cons that are associated with each approach. Let's take a closer look at these, see below.

Pros and Cons of Training Sales Talent

PROS:

1. You do not have to spend the time and money on recruiting new hires.
2. You can transfer the skills from your seasoned employees to the newer ones through mentoring.
3. This is an invaluable asset in the case of a staffing shortage.

CONS:

1. You may face some difficulties in designing a cross training program that would be able to provide employees with the skills that they need on a consistent basis.
2. The passing of information from one employee to another can lead to misinformation and tendencies of poorer performances in some instances.

Pros and Cons of Recruiting New Talent

PROS:

1. Recruitment helps bring new skills, new people, and innovation into the company.
2. This can be good for temporary assignments and projects.

CONS:

1. The costs and management of recruitment can be a little steep.
2. Recruitment can become very time consuming as it involves background checks, candidate interviews, countless hours of time and more.
3. The pressure on the human resources department can become insurmountable.

To learn more about the reality of recruitment costs, please click here.

The of PDI Ninth House published its research on the ability of senior-level leaders to develop their employees. Their findings discovered that as leaders moved up in an organization, their ability to develop others diminished even though they were well aware of the necessity of it at every level. This research also sheds light on the reasons behind this disconnection including but not limited to:

• Time - A leader in a company or an organization who are not well disciplined in their priorities is exposed to activities that can interfere with the time needed for the long-term investment in people.
• Focus on what is visible - As these leaders rise to a higher position it a natural tendency that they will demonstrate noticeable skills that catch people's attention.
• Lack of organizational coaching. - The study also demonstrated that leaders start to drop talent development as a priority when they enter the senior ranks. When they distinguish between individual coaching and organizational coaching it is the latter that lacks the most.

This is further discussed in an article featured in Forbes Magazine which can be retrieved by clicking here. With all of this in mind, the best course of action could perhaps be keeping the quality employees on your team while helping them further develop their skills. By investing in the success of your current employees and balancing this with recruiting new talent, your business can become successful from the ground up.